Our DVD and Blu-ray sales estimates are based on weekly retail surveys, which we use to build a weekly market share estimate for each title we are tracking. The market share is converted into a weekly sales estimate based on industry reports on the overall size of the market, including reports published in Media Play News.

For example, if our weekly retail survey estimates that a particular title sold 1% of all units that week, and the industry reports sales of 1,500,000 units in total, we will estimate 15,000 units were sold of that title. The consumer spending estimate is based on the average sales price for the title in the retailers we survey.

We refine our estimates from week to week as more data becomes available. In particular, we adjust weekly sales figures for the quarter once the total market estimates are published by the Digital Entertainment Group. Figures will therefore fluctuate each week, and totals for individual titles can go up or down as we update our estimates.

Because sales figures are estimated based on sampling, they will be more accurate for higher-selling titles.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for October 21st, 2014

October 21st, 2014

Like last week, it is not a very busy week on the home market. However, unlike last week, there are not a lot of prime releases. The second to last DVD / Blu-ray release for Mad Men tops the list. Well, it is the second to last release, until the Full Season Megaset comes out. The biggest theatrical release is The Purge: Anarchy, which was a huge hit, given its budget, but not a monster hit. As for the Pick of the Week contenders, it's Mad Men and Snowpiercer on DVD or Blu-ray. In the end I had to flip a coin to decide. I came up heads. Then I realized I should probably decide which movie is heads before I flipped the coin. Let's try that again. Snowpiercer is the Pick of the Week. More...

Per Theater Chart: Guardians Rides to the Rescue

August 6th, 2014

The overall box office leader, The Guardians of the Galaxy, also led the way on the per theater chart with an average of $23,118 in just over 4,000 theaters. Second place went to Calvary, with an average of $18,537 in four theaters. The final film in the $10,000 club was Magic in the Moonlight, with an average of $11,396 in 65 theaters. More...

Per Theater Chart: Coming of Age

July 15th, 2014

After a weekend with no films in the $10,000 club, this weekend we had the second best per theater average for the year. Boyhood earned nearly $400,000 in just five theaters for an average of $77,524. This is the second best per theater average for the year; only The Grand Budapest Hotel opened with a better average. The overall box office leader, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, was next with an average of $18,304 in nearly 4,000 theaters. More...

Per Theater Chart: Blacking Out

July 8th, 2014

There were no films in the $10,000 club on the per theater chart this weekend. The film that came the closest was Transformers: Age of Extinction, which earned an average of $8,753 in more than 4,000 theaters. The best limited release was Code Black, which earned $7,978 in one theater. The best new release was Tammy with an average of $6,227 in more than 3,000 theaters. Finally, the best new limited release was Life Itself, which managed an average of $5,713 in 23 theaters. More...

Weekend Estimates: Transformers Top Modest July 4 Weekend

July 6th, 2014

After opening around the $100 million mark last weekend, Transformers: Age of Extinction was always the odds-on favorite to win this weekend, and even a 64% fall will be enough to keep it top with a projected $36.4 million for the Friday–Sunday period. That’s well ahead of Tammy, which will post a respectable $21.2 million for the three-day weekend and almost $33 million in total by the end of Sunday. That’s plenty for a film that cost $20 million to make. More...

Per Theater Chart: Beginning on Top

July 1st, 2014

Despite there being a $100 million hit on the box office this weekend, Begin Again still led the way on the per theater chart with an average of $26,813 in five theaters. This bodes well for its expansion on Wednesday. The overall number one film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, was next with an average of $23,633 in more than 4,000 theaters. Snowpiercer was the third film to earn a per theater average over $20,000 with an average of $20,266 in eight theaters. America: Imagine a World Without Her was next with an average of $12,869 million in three theaters. Yves Saint Laurent was a surprise entry in the $10,000 club with an average of $12,104 in two theaters. It managed this despite earning weak reviews and opening on the Wednesday. The final film in the $10,000 club was Code Black, which climbed into the $10,000 club during its second weekend of release with $10,953 in two theaters. It is rare for a documentary to do this well, and it is even rarer for a film to see its per theater average grow. More...

Weekend Estimates: Transformers On Cusp of $100 Million Weekend

June 29th, 2014

Transformers: Age of Extinction is set to deliver the year’s biggest weekend, as it performs to sell-out crowds across the country. Paramount is projecting a weekend total of $100 million as of Sunday morning, which honestly seems like a conveniently round number. Perhaps the studio is playing it safe, and the actual weekend number will be a few million over $100 million? Or maybe they’re hoping that announcing a $100 million weekend will help encourage people to theaters today and push the film over the line? Based on the numbers we’re seeing, it looks more like the latter, and we’ll have to wait until Monday to see if Age of Extinction will actually be the first $100 million opener of the year. At the end of the day, it probably doesn’t matter a huge amount: $99 million versus $101 million is a rounding error, and the film has topped $200 million internationally this weekend, which is a great start towards repaying its reported $210 million production budget. More...

Limited Releases: Begin the Weekend with a Limited Release

June 27th, 2014

There are more than a dozen limited releases on this week's list, including two films that are opening in limited release this week with a scheduled wide expansion next week. Unfortunately, I don't have high hopes for either of those two films. There are some films worth checking out, including a pair of documentaries, The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz and Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger, both of which are also playing on Video on Demand. The film I hope has the best start is Snowpiercer, a South Korean film that is earning amazing reviews. More...